


The Second Thing

by skysedge



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Healing, Introspection, Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28074711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skysedge/pseuds/skysedge
Summary: Of fragrance, scars, and moving on.
Relationships: Primrose Azelhart/H'aanit
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29
Collections: femslashficlets: tarot prompt challenge





	The Second Thing

It’s a spring morning, just after sunrise, and as Primrose steps out barefoot onto the grass outside it’s the smell of lilacs that almost knocks her off her feet. She sways on the spot, eyes falling shut, and the memories crash over her like a wave. 

Simeon had brought her a bunch of lilacs, once, freshly cut from the garden. He had told her that they reminded him of her favourite dress, she remembers. She had taken the flowers and placed them in an empty milk bottle, set them on her windowsill where she would be able to see them from her bed. 

It’s a bittersweet memory. She raises a hand to her side, presses the fabric of her dress against the scar it hides, the only physical wound he had left her with when everything was said and done. A small mercy. Her heart is stitched together, sometimes bleeds from the seams, but that doesn’t show, no one can see just how ugly and broken she is on the inside. 

“Now you know that’s not true,” she murmurs to herself. “Start again.” 

She lets her hands fall to her sides, takes a deep breath in, holds the scent of lilac in her lungs until it stops tasting of him. 

It’s funny how it’s always the little things that send her off balance like this, even now. It’s inescapable, she supposes. After all, she had loved him once. It’s not fair that she can remember the way that had felt just as clearly as she can remember the cold shock of betrayal. For the first few weeks she had cried often, in secret of course, then for the first few months she had tortured herself by reliving the good days and comparing them to the bad, trying to picture his once charming smile beside his cruel, delusional grin. 

Like everything else in her life, it had been hard. The difference was that this time she wasn’t alone. 

“Primrose?” 

She hadn’t heard the door open behind her and she turns to see H’aanit in the doorway, her hair long and loose, messy from sleep. Her eyes are bright though, bright emerald and as sharp and alert as always. Once upon a time, Primrose had been frightened of the way that piercing gaze seemed to see right through her. She laughs softly at the memory. Misunderstanding, H’aani gives a slow frown. 

“Is theren something stuck to my face?” 

“No,” she smiles, shaking her head and crossing the grass between them. “I’m just...remembering.” 

H'aanit say anything, merely reaches out to take Primrose’s hands into her own and give them a squeeze, and it’s this silent encouragement and understanding that makes everything feel right again. 

“The lilacs,” Primrose says. “I didn’t know we had any.” 

“I didst plant them in Spring," H'aanit explains. “Ah, aren they not to your liking? I will cutten them and use them for tonics If you-” 

“It’s not that,” she interrupts. "I do like them.” 

It’s just complicated. She doesn’t have the words to explain it let alone the right ones to explain it to H’aanit. Suddenly an idea strikes her. Perhaps she doesn’t have to explain in words at all. She leans up on her tiptoes to press her lips softly against H'aanit's, speaking against them as she draws away. 

“Can we bring some in for the bedroom?” she asks. “I want them to be the second thing I see when I wake up.” 

“The second?” H’aanit asks, frowning in that adorable way she does when she can’t keep up with a conversation. “What is the first?” 

“That would be you, silly.” 

They stay in the garden for a while, _their_ garden, trading kisses and passing comment on the flowers and herbs that grow around them. Most mornings are like this. She hopes they’ll be like this for a long time to come. She won’t be able to forget Simeon, or the girl she once was, but little by little she’s coming to terms with the person she is now. 

She had loved him once. She can’t deny that. But her heart had been younger then, less complicated. Now it’s covered in scars. H'aanit had taken hold of it so gently and patiently that it hadn’t hurt at all. And every day it’s getting easier to forget about him completely. 

They put the flowers on the windowsill that afternoon. Linde knocks them off in the middle of the night and after they stop looking for murderers in the dark they laugh so loud the whole village hears. It’s a good memory. A better one. From now on, she hopes that the scent of lilacs will make her remember the sound of their laughter echoing in the night. 

**Author's Note:**

> For the femslash ficlets prompt table challenge, 'The Chariot' - 'Triumph - but beware of its consequences at length.'


End file.
